Biden says in meeting with Macron that handling of French submarine contract was "clumsy"
CBSN
In his first meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron since a spat over a canceled multi-billion-dollar submarine deal in September, President Biden blamed a communications snafu.
"I was under the impression that France had been informed long before that the (French) deal would not come through," Mr. Biden said Friday. "I honest to God did not know you had not," he said, turning to Macron.
When Australia scuttled its submarine deal with France in order to buy submarines with U.S. and British technology instead, Macron found out at the last minute — just before Mr. Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the deal to build nuclear-powered submarines, rather than the diesel submarines the Australians had signed a contract to purchase in 2016.
